Wet wood

[bigjake]

I try to keep my wood pile dry but the wind animals ans so on sometimes
the tarps just come off .What i do is try and keep a couple days of wood
in the house garage but when its wet and the fire get low its hard to get
started .Has anyone tried to blow a box fan on the wood to get the moister
out or put one under the tarp .Also about how much wood have you guys burned so far.

 

[bigjake]

Woops posted in the wrong place Sorry

 

[parrisw]

Build a woodshed.

 

[Mad Professor]

I try to keep my wood pile dry but the wind animals ans so on sometimes
the tarps just come off .What i do is try and keep a couple days of wood
in the house garage but when its wet and the fire get low its hard to get
started .Has anyone tried to blow a box fan on the wood to get the moister
out or put one under the tarp .Also about how much wood have you guys burned so far.

hard to get started? Mines been burning since October.

you need a woodrack, this one holds two weeks worth for me:

 

[SteveH]

The fan might help, a little. Mostly surface moisture though. I used to work in a furniture factory and we'd get in 2 x 10 lumber sometimes that was soaked through. We sticker it, set up cheap box fans, let them go for a couple weeks. That was for thinner wood than firewood, however. I finally built some inexpensive sheds for mine, poles cut with the saw, some others for "rafters," and the least expensive "barn roofing" corrugated steel. The front and backs are open, the ends solid, so snow can still blow in sometimes, but the sheds work 95% perfect. No more hassling with cheap blue tarps that shred after a winter of our winds.....

 

[pioneerguy600]

Build a woodshed.

Yup, should hold at least 3 cord of dry wood.
Pioneerguy600

 

[parrisw]

Yup, should hold at least 3 cord of dry wood.
Pioneerguy600

ha ha, surprised no one responded sooner. Mine holds just shy of 3 cord

 

[skinnykid02]

bigjake, be careful with that wet wood, I am having a problem with my stack because of wet wood.

I bought my house in March so I cut all my wood after that, all summer. Well I have been running my stove since October and already have a plugged stack!

I burn all Oak, Birch, Maple and a little Pine (very little)

The chimney guy ain't coming for a couple more days, it has been a week now. And it is sposed to get down to about 4 tonight. My "regular" heat has been running and I cringe every time it kicks on!

I have a wood closet to hold my wood, it will hold 2 days worth.

 

[slowp]

But, until your woodshed is built, a little tarpology is needed. I have stacked my wood on old cedar siding that I tore off an old trailer, then put a big tarp over, then anchored the sides with bungee cords and those deck footing things with the holes in the metal for posts. I stretch the tarp out tight and it hangs over enough, just like a tent fly. I have some metal roofing, that was also salvaged. I put that over the wood on the outside, under the tarp so the rain runs off the tarp onto the roofing and goes on its way. The tarp is also held down by chunks of wood on top. I haven't used any duct tape yet, but perhaps as the season progresses....:greenchainsaw:

 

[heimannm]

I keep my outside wood pile covered with a tarp and try to bring in at least a weeks worth at a time so most of it will dry by the time I put it in the fire. None the less, some of it will be rained on, snowed on, covered with ice, etc.. As long as the fire is going it really doesn't seem to hurt to throw in a log that is wet or covered in snow and ice.

If you keep the fire going most of the time and keep the wood stacked close by, it will dry off just fine.

Wood stored by the old Hot Shot wood furnace. I keep the smaller stuff in the wood box to make it easier to find smaller pieces as needed to build up a dwindling fire.

Another view of the Hot Shot & wood inside. When I put the wood furnace in years ago the only thing that made sense was to put an opening through the wall, load from this side and connect the duct to the gas furnace on the other side.

Wood stored by the Woodland F20, O.K. this pile would last several weeks of normal burning.

The Woodland stove and the indoor pile.

Mark

 

[heimannm]

Skinnykid, the way you burn has a lot more to do with build up in the chimney than what you burn.

If you keep a small fire burning hot you get a lot less build up than by packing it full of dry wood and closing the dampers down. I try to run mine with the dampers wide open for at least 30 minutes a day, normally in the morning when I first build the fire up, and it does seem to help reduce the accumulation in the chimney.

I find that even if I am burning really green wood, keeping the dampers open to keep the fire going produces less accumulation in the chimney than burning really dry wood with the dampers closed.

I normally have to go on the roof once during the season (normally between Christmas and the New Year) and run the brush through to remove the creosote that has built up. Most of the accumulation is from the roof line up where the chimney is coolest. I have a 6" stainless steel liner inside a single wall brick chimney and that top section is just too cold so there is a lot of creosote condensing right in that area.

Mark